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Company of the Random Encounter ('complete' 14 Nov 2004)
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<blockquote data-quote="Capellan" data-source="post: 1854973" data-attributes="member: 6294"><p>We've come to the end of the sessions I can recount in any detail, I'm afraid. There were four more sessions, which I'll give potted summaries for, below.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Babes in the Woods</strong></p><p>Margan Talhaus sends Khore, Ming Li, Valkyre and Anastria to a small village to speak with an elderly sage who might have information about the elementals coming from Brightstone Mines. They find the village has been massacred, but are able to track down the sage's apprentice (who escaped the killing) and learn that a force of humanoids has occupied the abandoned ruins of Brightstone Keep, and are sending expeditions into the Mines. They also learn that the humanoids have some way of spying on the Marikest Council, which is why the village was destroyed.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>The Battle of Brightstone Keep</strong></p><p>The <em>entire</em> Company of the Random Encounter (all 11 active members) are offered a secret deal by Margan Talhaus. If they kill or drive out the humanoids in Brightstone Keep, he will persuade the rest of the Council (who have not been told of what the adventurers discovered in the previous session) to give the Company the deeds to the Keep. The Company agree to these terms, and stage an attack that proves a spectacular failure. They are all defeated and captured.</p><p></p><p>(The PCs' principal advantages in this fight were that they knew the battle was coming, whereas the enemy didn't, and that they had a massive amount of healing available, whereas the enemy had very little. They eliminated the first advantage by doing <em>no</em> buffing and the second by splitting up into groups of 1 or 2 people each, which were unable to support each other and were individually surrounded and swamped.)</p><p></p><p>The captured adventurers are held for a week until one of the humanoids true masters arrives: a vampire from the Ebon Court The vampire <em>dominates</em> each of them in turn, has them tell him what they know, and then decides to wreak a little havoc with them.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Bad Beehive-iour</strong></p><p>Half the Company are sent to murder Sionaas, the bee-keeping wizard. Sionaas has no knowledge of the Ebon Court, but he is believed to be quite powerful (if a little 'odd' in his studies). As they are known to him, the vampire figures the adventurers should have little trouble catching the wizard with his guard down and slaying him.</p><p></p><p>The vampire should probably have thought more about the events that led to the Company's capture, before making assumptions like that. The whole thing goes badly wrong, again. Ming Li and Anastria are both killed while fighting Sionaas. The others survive only because the wizard casts <em>arcane sight</em>during the fight and realises they have been enchanted.</p><p></p><p>The principal destroyer of the group this time: an archon lantern. Well, that, and the fact that they split up, again.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Marikest Asylum</strong></p><p>The other half of the Company are sent to murder Margan Talhaus, and then retrieve Artimas Sendant from Marikest Asylum: the Ebon Court has use for him. If at all possible, however, they should keep Sendant's escape as quiet as possible for as long as possible.</p><p></p><p>They decide to achieve both these goals by unleashing a plague on the city. Nice folks. Under the cover of the plague, they poison Talhaus, then kill the staff of the asylum - not to mention a deranged kobold inmate - and make off with Sendant. With the town in a plague-spawned panic, it is several days before Sendant's disappearance is noticed.</p><p>In the course of this adventure, Khore (played by arwink) proved far more successful at the whole 'evil' thing than he had been at the whole holy knight deal. I expect he came to a bad end, because of it <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>That's All, Folks</strong></p><p>It was after Marikest Asylum that I decided to call an end to the campaign. Developments had brought it to a darker feel than was really appropriate for what was (meant to be) a light-hearted campaign. Even without that, there was a good chance that I would soon be out of the country for an extended period, which would have made running the game a little difficult!</p><p></p><p>Since I am now in Boston and the players are in Brisbane, I think the choice was wise <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Capellan, post: 1854973, member: 6294"] We've come to the end of the sessions I can recount in any detail, I'm afraid. There were four more sessions, which I'll give potted summaries for, below. [b]Babes in the Woods[/b] Margan Talhaus sends Khore, Ming Li, Valkyre and Anastria to a small village to speak with an elderly sage who might have information about the elementals coming from Brightstone Mines. They find the village has been massacred, but are able to track down the sage's apprentice (who escaped the killing) and learn that a force of humanoids has occupied the abandoned ruins of Brightstone Keep, and are sending expeditions into the Mines. They also learn that the humanoids have some way of spying on the Marikest Council, which is why the village was destroyed. [b]The Battle of Brightstone Keep[/b] The [I]entire[/I] Company of the Random Encounter (all 11 active members) are offered a secret deal by Margan Talhaus. If they kill or drive out the humanoids in Brightstone Keep, he will persuade the rest of the Council (who have not been told of what the adventurers discovered in the previous session) to give the Company the deeds to the Keep. The Company agree to these terms, and stage an attack that proves a spectacular failure. They are all defeated and captured. (The PCs' principal advantages in this fight were that they knew the battle was coming, whereas the enemy didn't, and that they had a massive amount of healing available, whereas the enemy had very little. They eliminated the first advantage by doing [I]no[/I] buffing and the second by splitting up into groups of 1 or 2 people each, which were unable to support each other and were individually surrounded and swamped.) The captured adventurers are held for a week until one of the humanoids true masters arrives: a vampire from the Ebon Court The vampire [I]dominates[/I] each of them in turn, has them tell him what they know, and then decides to wreak a little havoc with them. [b]Bad Beehive-iour[/b] Half the Company are sent to murder Sionaas, the bee-keeping wizard. Sionaas has no knowledge of the Ebon Court, but he is believed to be quite powerful (if a little 'odd' in his studies). As they are known to him, the vampire figures the adventurers should have little trouble catching the wizard with his guard down and slaying him. The vampire should probably have thought more about the events that led to the Company's capture, before making assumptions like that. The whole thing goes badly wrong, again. Ming Li and Anastria are both killed while fighting Sionaas. The others survive only because the wizard casts [I]arcane sight[/I]during the fight and realises they have been enchanted. The principal destroyer of the group this time: an archon lantern. Well, that, and the fact that they split up, again. [b]Marikest Asylum[/b] The other half of the Company are sent to murder Margan Talhaus, and then retrieve Artimas Sendant from Marikest Asylum: the Ebon Court has use for him. If at all possible, however, they should keep Sendant's escape as quiet as possible for as long as possible. They decide to achieve both these goals by unleashing a plague on the city. Nice folks. Under the cover of the plague, they poison Talhaus, then kill the staff of the asylum - not to mention a deranged kobold inmate - and make off with Sendant. With the town in a plague-spawned panic, it is several days before Sendant's disappearance is noticed. In the course of this adventure, Khore (played by arwink) proved far more successful at the whole 'evil' thing than he had been at the whole holy knight deal. I expect he came to a bad end, because of it :) [b]That's All, Folks[/b] It was after Marikest Asylum that I decided to call an end to the campaign. Developments had brought it to a darker feel than was really appropriate for what was (meant to be) a light-hearted campaign. Even without that, there was a good chance that I would soon be out of the country for an extended period, which would have made running the game a little difficult! Since I am now in Boston and the players are in Brisbane, I think the choice was wise :) [/QUOTE]
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